The problem extends well beyond the much-talked-about federal debt. The power of debt extends to almost every aspect of modern life. Our homes, our schools, our roads, our bridges, our highways, our utilities, our businesses, and virtually every product and property produced and sold depend on debt. By some estimates, as much as 30 cents of every dollar we spend goes to cover interest on the debt accrued to make and sell everything we buy. (For example, of the $6.5 billion in private company revenue in 2012, 36.8 percent went to interest payments.) Student debt has become the next territory for Wall Street to occupy. Once again, this required upending successful past practices. From World War II until the mid-1970s, public higher education was virtually free, led first by the GI Bill of Rights and then by California's robust tuition-free higher education systems and New York State. As the chart below shows, until the late 1980s, there was virtually no student debt. But as money for the public sector dried up (largely because of tax breaks for the wealthy), public financial support for higher education lagged behind tuition fees. Wall Street closed the gap and student debt